D-Day hero to be honoured at Chelsea Flower Show

MODEST: Bill Pendell was always reluctant to talk about his vital role in the Normandy landings (Image: Victoria Phipps)

But his role was essential to the success of those who followed him on to Gold Beach in Normandy, as he was a 22-year-old motorbike despatch rider attached to the 11th Armoured Division whose job was to get behind enemy lines and identify where German soldiers were positioned. Sparing no thought for his own safety, Pendell drove as close as he could to enemy positions, hid his motorbike in undergrowth, then went forward on foot, risking capture, to gather vital intelligence. Once that information was conveyed, the artillery knew exactly where to aim their guns, leading to countless Allied lives being saved.

Now Pendell’s extraordinary story will come alive in a D-Day garden at the Chelsea Flower Show in May to mark the landings’ 75th anniversary.

There will be a stone statue of the wartime hero, who died aged 97 in December, showing him as an old man, relaxed and wearing his Military Medal with pride, along with the Légion d’Honneur awarded to him in 2016.

There will also be a statue of him made of metal washers as a fresh-faced young man making the beach landing in June 1945 with others following in his wake.

His friend Joe Cattini cannot wait to see the garden and the statues of his old pal. “I don’t know how I am going to get on without him,” says Cattini, who won many medals himself. “When I first met him he never explained how he won his military medal. It was only in the last two years I learnt what Bill did.”

MEMORIAL: Statues of Bill will feature in the garden (Image: charity)

Pendell’s daughter Fay Pendell said he couldn’t understand the “fuss” people made of him in recent years but enthusiastically backed the idea of the garden.

The installation will also include four more metal sculptures of soldiers braving big waves and sea defences and 15-stone plinths bearing phrases from veterans recalling their D-Day experiences.

The £290,000 garden by award-winning designer John Everiss will be carpeted with more than 10,000 sea thrift plants, which troops would have seen on the beaches of Normandy.

It will occupy the Royal Hospital site that was memorably blanketed with handmade poppies in 2016 to commemorate Australian soldiers who lost their lives in the First World War.

“With surviving Normandy veterans now approaching 100 years of age, this is the last significant anniversary where they will all be getting together and two weeks later they will go to France for the celebrations.”

After the show the garden, commissioned by veterans’ charity D-Day Revisited, is due to be relocated to the British Normandy Memorial overlooking Gold Beach near Ver-sur-Mer. Everiss explained how he had fea-wanted to create a special show feature rather than a show garden at the Royal Horticultural Society event.

“I promised my wife Ruth that I would not do Chelsea again but D-Day has really inspired me and she knew I could not resist doing this garden,” he says. “The garden is a thank you to the veterans, who are very excited about it and understand the legacy aspect of ensuring the story does not die with them.

“We will have 15 veterans at the show in shifts talking to visitors and they will be looked after by the Royal Hospital, where they’ll have the opportunity to swap stories with the Chelsea Pensioners.

“With surviving Normandy veterans now approaching 100 years of age, this is the last significant anniversary where they will all be getting together and two weeks later they will go to France for the celebrations.”

Now Pendell’s extraordinary story will come alive in a D-Day garden at the Chelsea Flower Show (Image: Victoria Phipps )

Victoria Phipps, secretary of D-Day Revisited, says: “What’s exciting about the D-Day 75 Garden is that it aims to celebrate our living veterans as well as respectfully remembering those they left behind in Normandy.

“We hope it will create plenty of opportunities for our Second World War generation to share their incredible stories.”

The garden is being supported by the grandchildren of British military commander Field Marshal Montgomery and US General Dwight D Eisenhower.

Monty’s grandson Henry Montgomery says: “This anniversary garden presents the perfect opportunity to celebrate the D-Day veterans living among us and commemorate those who lost their lives, to all of whom we owe a huge debt of gratitude.”

The charity needs to raise £250,000 for this national garden tribute (Image: charity)

Eisenhower’s granddaughter Susan Eisenhower adds: “The special relationship between the United States of America and Great Britain was cemented on the beaches of Normandy. On both sides of the Atlantic we will be forever indebted to veterans of the Allied Expeditionary Force who fought to protect our freedom and we need to ensure their story is not forgotten.”

The charity needs to raise £250,000 for this national garden tribute.

“We are appealing to the British public for £75,000 and asking 75 businesses and organisations to contribute a minimum of £2,000 in support of the project,” Phipps says.